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| Concert Review |  |
by Oliver Hunter |
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| (As posted to the Big Country Mailing List):
Well, after coming back to parents house in Reading from a wedding in Devon on Sunday afternoon/evening I thought "why not" and drove up to London. All was going well until the 2-lane section near the end of the M4 which was quite heavily congested. After having 'zoomed' round central London (trying to read the A-Z at the same time) I reached Soho Square which was my intended parking spot at about 8.55 pm. I had to drive round a couple of times but luckily I found a space. After I had parked up I ran, yes RAN to the Borderline, paid the entrance fee and could hear Stuart doing some introductions as I made my way downstairs for about 7:50 pm. The stairs come out right next to the stage and Stuart and Marcus were just tuning up. I spotted Mike Lynd and went to say hello as they started playing. He motioned to me that he was recording the gig so I didn't shout anything else but went to the bar to get a coke. I made my way back to the front of the small crowd (<100 people) and enjoyed the new songs washing over me. Mark Brzezicki was playing bongos; Stuart played guitar; and Marcus played a mixture of guitars, keyboards and harmonica. They played the following songs:
I really liked all the songs which don't sound at all 'country' to me. I am far from being an expert in all the different country styles: when I think of country, I think of Tammy Wynette & Dolly Parton etc. This is more what I'd clumsily call Celtic-acoustic-folk-rock... The audience (mostly BC fans) were very responsive throughout the gig but The Travellers and In A Big Country were especially warmly welcomed. Before they playing IABC, Stuart said that because we were in the UK he got to choose the encore, although we should applaud Marcus for being "No. 1 in the US". Marcus thanked the crowd and responded by saying they were going to play something that had been No. 1 all round the world... The song was played more slowly than normal with some nice harmonies between Stuart and Marcus. Towards the end of the song they upped the tempo and power to nearly that of normal and the crowd joined in briefly before the tempo and volume dropped for a really mellow ending. The whole gig was very low-key with Stuart & Markus tuning their own guitars and Mark packing his own gear afterwards. Stuart and Marcus took turns on lead vocals from song to song and compliment each other perfectly. They also clearly enjoy playing together immensely and had great fun throughout the night. All too quickly it seemed the gig was over and I went to speak to Mike while we waited for the lads to come back out. I spotted Ian Grant and thanked him for the Barrow gig and he said he wanted to talk to me later... You'll never guess who we met next! ...... Callum Adamson!!! Having finished his exams in Scotland he was touring with Stuart and the band. He was at Barrow but said he had been tired and was probably in the bus when we all arrived backstage. He was selling copies of Marcus's CD "The Sound Of One Fan Clapping" for 10 UKP which he was getting signed by Marcus, Stuart and Mark. I chatted to him quite a bit and took several photos of him and the band and a couple of him with Stuart which are at the developers right now. I also met Neel Gandhi last night who has been traveling in India and signed my guestbook a while back. He was wearing a T-shirt that he had had embroidered while in India - really cool. We showed it to Stuart and Ian who also liked it and expressed an interest in getting some more done. I suggested to Ian that they release a video of single videos a la "Through a Big Country" and he said it was already in the pipeline! On the bad side he didn't seem to really understand about how the Mailing List works - he seemed to think it was attached to a web site or something; I did try to explain... He dropped a few clues about the new label BC will sign to and said the person was so big that he was surprised that no-one had guessed. Mike guessed at Paul McCartney and Ian made some cryptic comment about it being one of his cousins.... |
